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Monthly Archives: December 2014

If you didn’t own a TV, it was a GREAT year for TV. Really. In our modern age where we are slowly becoming more and more like the Jetsons, all you need is your friend’s HBO GO password, and a functional computer, and you’d be privy to some of the best pieces of episodic storytelling an Amazon Prime Subscription can buy.

Between our two lists, there’s not a network show in sight, with just some a few Comedy Central entries making the cut. Even shows that continue to be amazing like Bob’s Burgersand Brooklyn Nine-Nine didn’t make the cut. We talked about them last year, so it’s fine. They know they’re great.

We couldn’t do a 2014 Roundup without covering some of the worst things, and man, were some of these worsts a doozy. I mean, some of these things are really bad. Like, some of these things are crimes. But we’ll get there. Let’s be patient. Blergh.

2014, if nothing else, was a year for breakout entertainment – podcasts turned into a thing! An 11-minute sketch that aired in the middle of the night became a genuine phenomenom! …Billy Eichner! In this column, Ben and I will talk about all of our favorite things that defied category and defined the year.

The funniest thing about The Interview might be that now we officially have to equate James Franco and Seth Rogen with defending free speech in Hollywood. The situation surrounding this film is near unavoidable when discussing it in any context, since I can’t recall there ever being a film in U.S. history that has provoked such high international tensions as this one. But I want to do my best to just review this on it’s own merits, which to be fair, it does have a few. But this isn’t the glorious beacon of free speech it’s been made out to be. When going in to watch The Interview, you might go in thinking “Yes!! I am defending my right to free speech by watching this.” But you’ll probably finish the film thinking “They made such a big deal over that?!”

-Speaking of jokes, Aaron Sorkin has declared that this past week’s mansplaining mess was the best episode so far of The Newsroom, because he needed to mansplain to the world that what he wrote wasn’t an insulting turd.